The church at large seems to be afraid or at least shy about talking about the wonderful gift of God’s Holy Spirit. Misuse has led to this fear. We need to let go of that fear. The Holy Spirit is part of God, the Father and Jesus, The Son, the Three-in-One who helps us grow and mature in our intimate love of God and love for others. Growth and maturity, behaving more and more in every way like Christ, comes from the “various ways God’s Holy Spirit gets worked into our lives.”

God decides how, when, where, why, and what in this holy activity of transforming us to BE the Body of Christ as ONE Body with many parts. No part is more important than any other part. All that we are and all we do as believers, parts of the Body of Christ, is driven by God’s Holy Spirit. Our work as believers is to let God do what He does best, by the power of His Holy Spirit, in us to bring us closer and closer to Him.

“All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit to all kinds of people”, says Paul as he explains the Holy uses of these gifts. What I have experienced in my lifetime and verified by this passage is that when we yield to the Holy Spirit with what God has given us to be and do we see that our part joins with others active parts to build up, encourage the other parts of the Body of Christ. Our part helps others find and follow Christ. Our part helps other parts grow in Him! Our love deepens and grows exponentially because of God’s Holy Spirit working in all of us as One Body, the Body of Christ. Christ is the Head of the Body. We are the parts.

God decides what our part will be. ALL we are and ALL we do originate from God. He decides when and where. We don’t. He knows what part His Body needs most and provides it so that the Body of is healthy, growing and full of love.

As baby boomers we are notorious for hating labels and comparisons. Guess what? In God’s Kingdom ALL labels the world has given us disappear! The Holy Spirit gives us a great, new identify at rebirth. Our forever identify is now only in Christ, KING of kings and LORD of lords. How significant we become as part of the Body of Christ! The Holy Spirit does not bring us down to be less, but gifts us to be more, to contribute more, as the Body of Christ!

“We see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it, Paul explains, “But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a PART of.” Mankind ranks the importance of our work, God does not. Bear that in mind. Take joy in the thought!

BIG PICTURE: “You are Christ’s Body–that’s who you are! You must never forget this.” Accept the gift God’s Spirit has given and be grateful for the part He decided we should contribute to keep the Body healthy, growing and maturing in His love.

1 Corinthians 12, The Message

Spiritual Gifts

12 1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.

4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:

wise counsel

clear understanding

simple trust

healing the sick

miraculous acts

proclamation

distinguishing between spirits

tongues

interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:

apostles

prophets

teachers

miracle workers

healers

helpers

organizers

those who pray in tongues.

But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.

But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.

Tomorrow….the “better way”!

Dear Heavenly Father,

We repent of looking the other way, not using your gifts to us according to your Holy Spirit, with lack of obedience and sheer laziness. May our desires match Your desires for our part in your Body. May Your Holy Spirit cleanse us, transform us so that weakness becomes strength which helps others to grow as well. You are God and we are not. Transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.

So, it was National Women’s Day yesterday. I scoff at the idea. Special days designed by worldly people to celebrate the obvious defy all logic to me in this world. What is the obvious?God created each person from Adam and Eve to all human kind. He knows every individual before we are born. He knows us before we were the twinkle in our parents eyes. He greatly loves each man and woman He creates…equally. The world is bent on creating special days for those who feel they need attention. When will we realize that day has already been created for all of us?

There is seriously only ONE day to prove our “specialness”…the day Jesus died to redeem all of us from all our sin. We are equal in redemption. He died for all, once and for all. ALL is the operative word. Sin has no rank. Humans have no rank and file to God. One person is not more important than another in God’s Kingdom. Real Life began at the Cross. So, Who’s first? Jesus! HE is the first and final authority.

Paul explains this well in the next passage of his letter to the church gone wild that is filled with egotistic competitions for human honor and glory. Paul reminds the church that Christ is the Head, the One and Only, who redeemed us. Only Christ has the place of honor and glory as the Head of His church. We, as humans and believers are to honor God and God alone by submitting to the One and Only who redeemed us. Man and woman were created to worship, honor, and obey the One who loved us first. Man and woman, each created for specific purpose, are loved deeply by God who created us and gives His best to us.

Celebrate Life! Thank God for His gift of salvation and freedom to love in the way He loves us!

1 Corinthians 11, The Message

1-2 It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ.

3-9 In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God. Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ. In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband. Worse, she dishonors herself—an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts, men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their “heads” to the Head: God.

10-12 Don’t, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women. Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God—that is true. But the head on a woman’s body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her “head,” her husband. The first woman came from man, true—but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let’s quit going through these “who’s first” routines.

13-16 Don’t you agree there is something naturally powerful in the symbolism—a woman, her beautiful hair reminiscent of angels, praying in adoration; a man, his head bared in reverence, praying in submission? I hope you’re not going to be argumentative about this. All God’s churches see it this way; I don’t want you standing out as an exception.

What do we learn?

–We were all equally created, men and women, for specific purpose by God. We all look and act differently but are loved equally by God. Wow! That’s why we work to please God because we know that even though the world does not treat us equally, He does!!!

–Jesus’ authority comes from God. They are one. Our authority to speak about Him comes from Jesus who was first to speak of God. “The authority of Christ is the authority of God.”

–Authority to speak, (given to all who believe) is not lording over someone else, it is only speaking with honor and respect, what God the Father has done for us and has given us to say or do in the Name of Jesus. Only Jesus is the Head of the humans who make up His church gathered in His Name.

–Matthew 18-20 explains authority passed on…”Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

–Having authority to speak in the Name of Jesus about Jesus does not make us above anyone else. We all are commanded to go! Tell! Teach and train others to go and tell! AND Jesus, the One and Only will be with us as we do what He commanded.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We repent of competing with each other. How dumb of us. You are the One and Only God and we are not. You are our Redeemer and You are our Friend. You are magnificent and merciful. You are great. You are perfect. You extend grace to one and all. We are equal in your eyes. Thank you for your unconditional to love to all. Thank you for saving all who believe and accept your gift of freedom. Transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.

A prince came to town looking for true love, someone who would love and accept him as much as he would love and accept her. He soon found her and offered her his promise of a marriage commitment. She was thrilled at the prospect and opportunity to leave her life as a pauper to become the wife of a soon to be king! He even knelt down and offered her his kingdom if she would promised to love and marry him. She said yes immediately!

The prince told his soon to be bride that he would have to leave for a while to go back to the palace where he would get a place ready for them. She was full of joy as she dreamed of the magnificent home she would soon live in with her prince.

While he was gone, however, it was as if the engagement never happened. She never talked about her prince. She didn’t tell anyone of her engagement or the promise of living with him forever in the palace. She began dating others in town. She threw parties with no mention of her prince. Her love for him quickly faded in his absence. She forgot all about him.

Could this represent the church of Jesus Christ, our King? It happened to God’s people Moses was trying to lead. Look at the history, Paul writes. “The same thing could happen to us.” Sometimes we behave like the engaged one who has forgotten to Whom we are committed.

Paul reminds the church gone wild in Corinth of the “warning markers” that indicate memory loss of our commitment to our Savior and Lord. He also reminds the church (us) that we don’t compartmentalize our faith and pull it out only on Sundays. “We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; He raises us to what He is.”

“We can’t have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. The Master won’t put up with it. He wants US–all or nothing.”

“…the point is not to just get by. We want to live well,but our foremost efforts should be to help OTHERS live well.” Our behavior reflects what we truly believe.

Do ALL to God’s glory, not to please others. “At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on toes…” “…be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters”

1 Corinthians 10, The Message

1-5 Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.

6-10 The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.

11-12 These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.

14 So, my very dear friends, when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can.

15-18 I assume I’m addressing believers now who are mature. Draw your own conclusions: When we drink the cup of blessing, aren’t we taking into ourselves the blood, the very life, of Christ? And isn’t it the same with the loaf of bread we break and eat? Don’t we take into ourselves the body, the very life, of Christ? Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness—Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is. That’s basically what happened even in old Israel—those who ate the sacrifices offered on God’s altar entered into God’s action at the altar.

19-22 Do you see the difference? Sacrifices offered to idols are offered to nothing, for what’s the idol but a nothing? Or worse than nothing, a minus, a demon! I don’t want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself. And you can’t have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. Besides, the Master won’t put up with it. He wants us—all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?

23-24 Looking at it one way, you could say, “Anything goes. Because of God’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster.” But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.

25-28 With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don’t have to run an “idolatry test” on every item. “The earth,” after all, “is God’s, and everything in it.” That “everything” certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop. If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn’t, and you don’t want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.

29-30 But, except for these special cases, I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!

31-33 So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.

Think about it…

Paul passionately demonstrates his love for God and for others. Every breath he takes is worship to Christ and Him crucified. This should be our story of His story in our lives. We live because Jesus Christ lives. We are free because Jesus redeemed us. Jesus fulfilled his promise and commitment to us. Are we fulfilling our promise to Him? Do we talk to Him and about Him with anticipation and expectant joy? Like a bride getting ready for her groom?

Dear Heavenly Father,

Renew the joy of Your salvation in us. Restore our memories today of all you have done, are doing and will do in and through us. Continue to transform me as I wait for your return. Transform your church, your bride. Transform the world.

Randy and I felt truly called to be teachers in a public school environment. We were passionate about teaching kids. We worked hard in our young married lives with three children to accomplish the goal for both of us to be teachers. Teachers are not paid well we were advised by the Director of Education at our university, so this has to be a calling for all of you. You will not make money doing this for kids. You will barely survive financially. Maybe two of you can have one decent salary. We trudged on to accomplish the goal.

We both taught school until the day God called us to another mission. This mission would pay even less. God called Randy to temporarily pastor the church we grew up in. We had no idea what compensation there would be as the church was struggling because of the extended vacancy left by other pastors. That didn’t bother us because when God calls, He provides. That was our belief and God honored our faith behavior. There were a few times when the church couldn’t pay him but we survived.

Nine years later, the church was more stable. Randy felt a deeper call to full time ministry with more training at a seminary in Ohio. I felt a call to full time ministry but didn’t know what to do with that call. The denomination then called me to a newly created position that used all the gifts God gave me as a teacher and much more. It was a tremendous challenge that left me weak in the knees but strong in faith that God would see us through. Randy was also called to pastor a small church while attending seminary. We packed up all our belongings and left for Ohio not knowing what our compensation would be until we got there. Why? Because it was more important to obey than to question God’s call.

God’s call has always been more important than the compensation to many of us in ministry, but as Paul writes, many in the church sometimes take advantage of the faith of those who believe God will take care of them. God does take care of his proclaimers of His Message of salvation. We can testify to that, but isn’t it wonderful when God’s people are blessed to be the ones who compensate before being prodded by God or by reminding them of someone like Paul to get them to do it!

Most ministers are not trying to beat the system or get something out of it for themselves. (There are a few who do but don’t last long in ministry.) Most are just trying to feed their families. Most of us, like teachers, willingly pay a lot of our own expenses for supplies and extras to enhance our presentations of the gospel.

So, Paul’s words speak truth in love with a reminder for all of us to run the race to win. That means to do all that you can to train your pastor and each other. Stay alert, focused on God. Stay spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally fit to run. Don’t hold back compensation. Don’t hold back on prayer and encouragement. RUN to win the gold that is eternal. How? By obedience to God and His Call. Guess what? God calls everyone to do something for the sake of the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 9, The Message

1-2 And don’t tell me that I have no authority to write like this. I’m perfectly free to do this—isn’t that obvious? Haven’t I been given a job to do? Wasn’t I commissioned to this work in a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, our Master? Aren’t you yourselves proof of the good work that I’ve done for the Master? Even if no one else admits the authority of my commission, you can’t deny it. Why, my work with you is living proof of my authority!

3-7 I’m not shy in standing up to my critics. We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations, and we have a right to support for us and our families. You don’t seem to have raised questions with the other apostles and our Master’s brothers and Peter in these matters. So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way? Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don’t milkmaids get to drink their fill from the pail?

8-12 I’m not just sounding off because I’m irritated. This is all written in the scriptural law. Moses wrote, “Don’t muzzle an ox to keep it from eating the grain when it’s threshing.” Do you think Moses’ primary concern was the care of farm animals? Don’t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in. So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you? Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don’t we who have never demanded deserve even more?

12-14 But we’re not going to start demanding now what we’ve always had a perfect right to. Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ. All I’m concerned with right now is that you not use our decision to take advantage of others, depriving them of what is rightly theirs. You know, don’t you, that it’s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message.

15-18 Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!

19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.

26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for always providing for all our needs. Always. Thank you for leading and guiding us in the past, now, and in the future. Thank you for your protective Hand over us. Thank you, most of all for your unconditional love that provided for our salvation and life with you forever. Thank you for those who compensated us for the work you gave us to do over the years.

As parents of a toddler who is learning to walk, we work hard to take away all the obstacles in the room to avoid stumbling and tripping. We want them to have a clear path as they learn to walk instead of crawl through life. Hold that thought.

We are saved from sin’s entanglements and snares when we repent of sin, accept Jesus as our Savior and choose to commit to following Him as our Lord. The Holy Spirit is now our guide and help in all things. Hallelujah! We do not become know-it-alls, however, because of our new found freedom. Evil still wants to trip us up and cause others to trip and fall, too.

Pride comes to everyone in all forms. As new Christians, (not perfect but perfectly forgiven), we think we are invincible and suddenly invulnerable to sin and risk it all by going back to the old way of life. “I can handle it,” we say. But what if that trips up a person who watches our life and looks to us for the way to their salvation and get confused by our behavior?

Paul addressed that very issue in our next passage. What happens to meat sacrificed by idols? This is the issue for the Corinthian church gone wild who is accepting all worldly behavior while looking for excuses to justify their sin. Paul causes them to think about it in another way with great wisdom.

1 Corinthians 8, The Message

Freedom with Responsibility

1-3 The question keeps coming up regarding meat that has been offered up to an idol: Should you attend meals where such meat is served, or not? We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.

4-6 Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual existence, that there’s nothing to them, that there is no God other than our one God, that no matter how many of these so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don’t add up to anything but a tall story. They say—again, quite rightly—that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that there is only one Master—Jesus the Messiah—and that everything is for his sake, including us. Yes. It’s true.

7 In strict logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an idol. It’s just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that. But knowing isn’t everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn’t that insensitive.

We need to be sensitive to the fact that we’re not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have spent your entire lives eating “idol meat,” and are sure that there’s something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn’t going to change overnight.

8-9 But fortunately God doesn’t grade us on our diet. We’re neither commended when we clean our plate nor reprimanded when we just can’t stomach it. But God does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a fellow believer still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off track.

10 For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn’t there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused—maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong.

11-13 Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn’t you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him—because, as you say, it doesn’t really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn’t worth it at the cost of even one of these “weak ones.” So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there’s any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.

Think about it…

–He is God and we are not. We do not know it all. Only God.

–Is it worth the cost of tripping up a brother or sister looking at our behavior as a measure of who Christ is in us?

–“When we hurt our friend, we hurt Christ!”

–Nothing…drinking alcohol that lessens your ability to think wisely, abusing prescription drugs, going to places that are dark and known to others as a place to misbehave, over eating to gluttonous proportions, anything that causes another person watching to wonder and say, “I thought they followed Christ?” is not cherishing your freedom in Christ responsibly.

–When in doubt, don’t.

–“Never go”…if there is a chance it will trip up a family member, friends from church or close co-workers who are seeking Christ or who are new in the faith.

–And no, we are human and we can’t “handle it”.

“Yes, it does make a difference.” –– Paul

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have saved us and redeemed at a high price, the cost of Jesus’ sacrificed life. How can we think of tripping another person up on their journey to You by our behavior and lack of sacrifice? But sometimes we do. We repent of those times. Keep us focused on You. Holy Spirit, guide us.

To marry or not to marry is on the minds of many young adults seeking loving companionship. Randy and I have talked with many who are single seeking not to be single, to some who have a relationship that is not healthy for them, and to many who have decided to get married and have asked for counsel before the big pronunciation event called the wedding.

We have also talked with those who are in marital situations where there is abuse. The spouse cannot stay and be beaten emotionally or physically so they must get protection from the abuser.

The hardest situation to advise are those who are so needy within themselves, do not trust God to know what is best for them and rely on someone, anyone to come along and “fix” them. What a burden, that belongs to God alone, that puts on the one who comes along to “save” and “rescue” the needy. These are relationships that, without God’s intervention, do not last. At best the relationship is handicapped for life unless God defines each person, heals and restores them to be strong and healthy apart as well as together. God defines us, not our marriage, singleness, work, church, family or any other event or institution on earth.

In other words, be strong in the Lord as one. Be obedient to His will and plan for you. Work to please Him first. Let Him define who you are as He defines the person you might meet and marry someday…or not. Develop a relationship that is strong, growing and healthy with God before building a relationship with another in the same way God loves you.

Paul, inspired by God, in His counsel to the church gone wild with sexual promiscuity and unholy relationships, writes, “Hang on to your husband or wife.” “Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life.” 1 Cor 7

This key verse is in the middle of Paul’s advice to singles and married people. People who realize God’s unconditional love for them know how to unconditionally love someone else. People who live a life of obedience to God, seeking to please Him first know what it means to love unconditionally and selflessly. Be strong in the Lord. Let Him define you. We cannot emphasize this enough in this world of self gratification of the “have it your way” mentality.

1 Corinthians 7, The Message

To Be Married, to Be Single . . .

Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, Is it a good thing to have sexual relations?

2-6 Certainly—but only within a certain context. It’s good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder. The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband. Marriage is not a place to “stand up for your rights.” Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it’s for the purposes of prayer and fasting—but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it. I’m not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence—only providing my best counsel if you should choose them.

7 Sometimes I wish everyone were single like me—a simpler life in many ways! But celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others.

8-9 I do, though, tell the unmarried and widows that singleness might well be the best thing for them, as it has been for me. But if they can’t manage their desires and emotions, they should by all means go ahead and get married. The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single.

10-11 And if you are married, stay married. This is the Master’s command, not mine. If a wife should leave her husband, she must either remain single or else come back and make things right with him. And a husband has no right to get rid of his wife.

12-14 For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages—Christian married to non-Christian—we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her. If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer but he wants to live with you, hold on to him. The unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out; as it is, they also are included in the spiritual purposes of God.

15-16 On the other hand, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you’ve got to let him or her go. You don’t have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it, as peacefully as we can. You never know, wife: The way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you but to God. You never know, husband: The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you but to God.

17 And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. Don’t think I’m being harder on you than on the others. I give this same counsel in all the churches.

18-19 Were you Jewish at the time God called you? Don’t try to remove the evidence. Were you non-Jewish at the time of your call? Don’t become a Jew. Being Jewish isn’t the point. The really important thing is obeying God’s call, following his commands.

20-22 Stay where you were when God called your name. Were you a slave? Slavery is no roadblock to obeying and believing. I don’t mean you’re stuck and can’t leave. If you have a chance at freedom, go ahead and take it. I’m simply trying to point out that under your new Master you’re going to experience a marvelous freedom you would never have dreamed of. On the other hand, if you were free when Christ called you, you’ll experience a delightful “enslavement to God” you would never have dreamed of.

23-24 All of you, slave and free both, were once held hostage in a sinful society. Then a huge sum was paid out for your ransom. So please don’t, out of old habit, slip back into being or doing what everyone else tells you. Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side.

25-28 The Master did not give explicit direction regarding virgins, but as one much experienced in the mercy of the Master and loyal to him all the way, you can trust my counsel. Because of the current pressures on us from all sides, I think it would probably be best to stay just as you are. Are you married? Stay married. Are you unmarried? Don’t get married. But there’s certainly no sin in getting married, whether you’re a virgin or not. All I am saying is that when you marry, you take on additional stress in an already stressful time, and I want to spare you if possible.

29-31 I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don’t complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple—in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.

32-35 I want you to live as free of complications as possible. When you’re unmarried, you’re free to concentrate on simply pleasing the Master. Marriage involves you in all the nuts and bolts of domestic life and in wanting to please your spouse, leading to so many more demands on your attention. The time and energy that married people spend on caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming whole and holy instruments of God. I’m trying to be helpful and make it as easy as possible for you, not make things harder. All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions.

36-38 If a man has a woman friend to whom he is loyal but never intended to marry, having decided to serve God as a “single,” and then changes his mind, deciding he should marry her, he should go ahead and marry. It’s no sin; it’s not even a “step down” from celibacy, as some say. On the other hand, if a man is comfortable in his decision for a single life in service to God and it’s entirely his own conviction and not imposed on him by others, he ought to stick with it. Marriage is spiritually and morally right and not inferior to singleness in any way, although as I indicated earlier, because of the times we live in, I do have pastoral reasons for encouraging singleness.

39-40 A wife must stay with her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, she is free to marry anyone she chooses. She will, of course, want to marry a believer and have the blessing of the Master. By now you know that I think she’ll be better off staying single. The Master, in my opinion, thinks so, too.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We repent of having it our own way that leads to disappointment, emotional scarring, and sometimes physical pain. We thank you for restored lives. We pray for those who not strong and need your strength and intervention in their lives. We pray for those seeking only a person to meet all their needs without asking You for help. We pray for those who have rescued and now are living a life of burden without knowing You are the Savior, Rescuer and Lord of all our lives. Heal, save and restore. Transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.

What would happen if we really had the guts to talk out our disagreements in the most excellent way with hearts full of love, respect and care for each other. Shouldn’t this be the justice we are seeking or are we more intent on the sport of arguing, creating an enemy for life by holding grudges, wanting our own way no matter where the chips fall?

Imagine, just for a while, a world where we honor each other as equals, give in to those who offend us with their needs and wants, and bless them. What would it be like for all media to show and tell what brings respect to the Body of Christ? What if they gave us stories where respect for our own physical bodies was encouraged? What if our sexual desires were put into perspective as the gift from God that it is between a man and a women committed to each other as forever husband and wife? Wouldn’t that be revolutionary?

It won’t happen in a world gone wild with the sin of self. But when it enters into the church, someone has to lovingly step up and call it for what it is before God’s church (people) crash and burn. Paul is that man. Peterson’s way of translating Paul’s words in The Message that we are reading from is in today’s language and is pretty clear in explaining God’s intent for us.

1 Corinthians 6, The Message

1-4 And how dare you take each other to court! When you think you have been wronged, does it make any sense to go before a court that knows nothing of God’s ways instead of a family of Christians? The day is coming when the world is going to stand before a jury made up of followers of Jesus. If someday you are going to rule on the world’s fate, wouldn’t it be a good idea to practice on some of these smaller cases? Why, we’re even going to judge angels! So why not these everyday affairs? As these disagreements and wrongs surface, why would you ever entrust them to the judgment of people you don’t trust in any other way?

5-6 I say this as bluntly as I can to wake you up to the stupidity of what you’re doing. Is it possible that there isn’t one levelheaded person among you who can make fair decisions when disagreements and disputes come up? I don’t believe it. And here you are taking each other to court before people who don’t even believe in God! How can they render justice if they don’t believe in the God of justice?

7-8 These court cases are an ugly blot on your community. Wouldn’t it be far better to just take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it? All you’re doing is providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people of your own spiritual family.

9-11 Don’t you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don’t care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom. A number of you know from experience what I’m talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you’ve been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.

12 Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.

13 You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!

14-15 God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.

16-20 There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

The highlights to pay attention and to assimilate into our thinking…

–“…here you are taking each other to court before people who don’t even believe in God! How can they render justice if they don’t believe in the GOD of justice?” That’s stupidity.

–“You have been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.” LIVE by His Holy Spirit.

–“If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.”

–“Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!”

–“There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin.”

–“Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever–the kind of sex that can never “become one.”

–“In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, made for God-given, God-modeled love for becoming one with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit?”

“The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. GOD OWNS THE WHOLE WORKS. So let people see God in and through your body.”

Again, counter culture for the church gone wild as society seeped in and took over in Corinth. Counter culture for the world we live in today.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We repent of holding grudges, keeping arguments alive, not solving issues with each other, dwelling on the past offenses and not moving forward as the Body of Christ. Help us to live the life you intended for us to live and not rely on the sinful world around us to solve our problems. May those seeking see You in us and through us today. Transform me. Transform your church. Transform the world.